With West Ham winning earlier in the day Bolton had to at least avoid defeat - and they packed their defence to earn a valuable draw on the South Ccoast.
Bolton boss Sam Allardyce paced the technical area with growing anxiety and nervousness as his team edged towards a draw.
They restricted Southampton to a handful of half-chances but failed to muster a single shot of their own on target.
Bolton's best chance fell to Henrik Pedersen in the 25th minute but from three yards at the far post he could only scuff a shot onto the roof of the net.
Southampton came closest to snatching a win in the 31st minute when Michael Svensson saw a shot from eight yards blocked on the line by the spread-eagled body of goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen.
James Beattie, anxious to add to his 23 goals, got the ball in the Bolton net after 35 minutes but his effort was ruled out for offside.
Brett Ormerod should have scored for Southampton after 59 minutes but after Beattie's deflected shot had spun over the goalkeeper he failed to hit the target from a yard out when a goal looked inevitable.
Bolton defender Gudni Bergsson missed with two headers as Bolton looked for a breakaway goal but recent match winners Jay-Jay Okocha and Youri Djorkaeff had off days.
Referee Phil Dowd booked Fabrice Fernandes, Paul Williams and Ormerod of Southampton and Djorkaeff and Ivan Campo of Bolton as the battle grew more intense.
Allardyce sent on Pierre-Yves Andre, Kevin Nolan and Salva in a bid to snatch an unlikely winner but in the end had to be satisfied with a worthy point.